The Centrists, The Moderates, and The Liberals: Where The 2020 Democratic Nominees Stand on Student Debt Forgiveness
By John Sherza
The following feature piece appeared in the September 2019 edition of The Campus.
With a minimum of twenty-three candidatesrunning for the Democratic nomination, one would expect to witness a variety ofdifferent approaches to address an issue. Variety may be the spice of life, butthe amount of choices we have at the moment can be overwhelming. Most Americanslack the time or energy to carefully examine each candidate’s position on thetopics at hand. This is especially true for college students who are busytrying to juggle their many responsibilities. It is concerning because thefuture President could fundamentally change the course of their life. Specifically,when it comes to the issue of student debt in this country.
For the sake of keeping this articlefrom getting as long as this election’s primary ballot, candidates will be separatedinto three categories: Centrists, Moderates, and Liberals. Their categorizationis determined by their previous legislative history, public statements, andother policy proposals. Despite being in the same category, each candidate maintainsunique policies that all have subtle differences. These categories define thecandidates’ general political and economic philosophy that governs their policyproposals.
The Centrists
TheCentrists have established their careers on the foundation ofbipartisanship. All of these candidates represent closely contested states,that often swing from Republican to Democrat and vice-versa. One strategy usedto survive these battleground states is distancing yourself from what istraditionally expected to be the position of your party. These candidatesstrategically embrace certain positions held by the opposing party, focusheavily on the demographics, and observe the trends in their districts. Candidatesunder this category include Joe Biden, Steve Bullock, Michael Bennet, JohnDelaney, John Hickenlooper, and Tim Ryan. All five have taken issue with the Liberals’ plans to completelyeliminate tuition costs. However, it’s clear that all of these candidates arefeeling the pressure from the promises made by the Liberal front runners.
Most of these candidates have publicly supported eliminating tuition costs for two-year community colleges and trade schools. The only exceptions are Michael Bennet, who ironically was a superintendent in Denver, and Steve Bullock. Despite facing competition from 19 other candidates, Bennet has not introduced any clear plan to address the student loan crisis. Bullock wrote an opinion piece for CNN, telling the story of his own student loans while lambasting Liberal candidates for making what he considers unrealistic promises. No Centrist candidate supports student loan forgiveness. They all support federal efforts to fund state and community colleges, capping federal loan rates to lower percentages, and increasing Pell Grant funding. These candidates reject idealism in the interests of pragmatism. Many of these candidates invoke classic American ideals of earning your way to a better life. They prioritize the immediate interests of the working class, midwestern people they represent. Their policy proposals protect a laissez-faire system of capitalism, that ensures universities and loan agencies’ ability to generate revenue from college students.
The Moderates
TheModerates are facing an uphill battle this election season.Reconciling with Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, Moderates aim to make the casethat their policy proposals will withstand President Trump’s attacks in 2020.The field of Moderates is the largest group of the three categories. Moderatesare typically the candidates that follow the established beliefs and positionsof the party and rarely step out of line. The key strategy of a Moderate is tocentralize their image into a key issue area. They use a particular issue asthe foundation for their election campaigns. The list of Moderates includesKamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Bill de Blasio, Cory Booker, Seth Moulton, AmyKlobuchar, Kristen Gillibrand, Julian Castro, Jay Inslee, Beto O’Rourke, TulsiGabbard, and Wayne Massam.
These candidates come from a widevariety of backgrounds all across the country. Like the Centrists, all of theModerates support making community college and trade schools tuition-free.Moderates do not support the complete student debt forgiveness, nor do theysupport completely tuition-free colleges. They argue that capping federal loaninterest rates and expanding federal aid will be enough to solve the studentdebt crisis. A common talking point among Moderates is the burden middle-classtaxpayers face in the prospect of tuition-free college. They claim that thepeople benefitting the most from tuition-free college are students fromwealthy, coastal families. It's unfair to tell poor, working-classmid-westerners that their tax money must go to coastal elites. Like Centrists,Moderates believe in the importance of self-sufficiency. They do not agree thatthe government needs to provide. However, unlike Centrists, Moderates frametheir argument against tuition-free college to make it seem the status of theworking class is their highest concern. Many of these candidates sympathizewith the intentions of tuition-free universities but insist that the realitiesof economics make those plans unrealistic.
The Liberals
The Liberals have been commanding the energy this election season. Many of their proposals have been given extensive media coverage. In many ways, Liberals are the antithesis of the 2016 Election. Anger and frustration have been boiling ever since President Trump was elected into office. Since the Republican Party is quickly moving further right of the political spectrum, Democrats must counter it by moving further left. These candidates present their ideas as common-sense reform that have not been implemented due to special interests. They point to polling data that supposedly shows popular support for their ideas and other countries that have programs similar to ones they propose and highlight the success of those programs as examples. At a quick glance, the Liberals appear to share the opposite side of the same coin with President Trump. Both President Trump and the Democratic Liberals promise ambitious, but constitutionally dubious policy proposals. There are many students passionately supporting Liberal candidates because if their policies were enacted, it could transform their lives.
Hearing others abandon their academic careers because of high costs is something painfully common in this country. The Liberal candidates include Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and Marianne Williamson. All of these candidates share the belief that tuition for four-year degrees should be abolished. They believe it is immoral to ask young people still trying to figure out their lives, to bear the burden of thousands of dollars of debt. Liberals also want the federal government to pay off the existing debt college graduates are currently paying themselves. To pay for these proposals, Liberals want to implement equally ambitious taxes on the wealthy and middle-class. They dismiss criticisms of higher taxes on the middle class by claiming the benefits of their proposals will offset the costs. Liberals emphasize the importance of human capital in all of their policies. They are willing to invest massive amounts of money to improve the well-being and quality of life, at the cost of anyone earning an above-average income.
Twentycandidates from all corners of our country are battling for our attention,support, and a chance to face President Donald Trump in the 2020 PresidentialElection. Despite the unflattering comparisons to Andrew Johnson or RichardNixon, President Trump appears to be in a decent position to reclaim the WhiteHouse for another term. Presidents rarely lose re-election campaigns when theeconomy is doing well. Facing this reality, Democratic candidates need newstrategies to challenge President Trump. However, all Democratic candidatesagree on President Trump’s unimpressive record on addressing the needs of theworking class. One of his many AchillesHeels is his lack of action in addressing the student loan crisis. The numberof college student bearing crushing debt is reaching record highs. Regardlessof what group of democrats ultimately secures the nomination, the party mustgive its complete support to the nominee and the actions they want to take.
